Published May 9, 2025

The Making of a Broadway Season

by Dennyse Sewell

Late spring is an exciting time in the world of Broadway. In New York City, the newest productions must open by the end of April in order to be eligible for that year’s Tony Awards. The nominations are announced in early May, allowing Tony voters one final month to see all the shows and make their choices. It is an electric time to be in the city before the Tonys are awarded in June!

The Broadway League is the national trade association for Broadway producers and presenters.  Like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences does for the Oscars, the Broadway League is responsible for the creation and facilitation of the Tony Awards, now in its 78^th season. Here at the Pioneer Center in Reno, we have been presenting first-class touring Broadway productions for over 30 years. As CEO of the Pioneer Center, I became an official member of the Broadway League in 2022. 

Not all Broadway League members are Tony voters, but all touring Broadway presenters (including the Pioneer Center!) are invited to New York City each May for an exclusive conference that coincides with the Tony voting period. This conference focuses on the new productions that will soon send out major national tours. Conference attendees have the opportunity to see several Broadway productions and engage in seminars about the creation of the shows, the Broadway industry, current best practices, emerging trends, and more. It is a jam-packed week attended by thousands of professionals from theaters in major cities across the country.

Our team has been attending this spring conference for years. It is our chance to experience new musicals and revivals firsthand and to consider which titles may appeal to our patron base.  It helps us, along with our partners at Nederland National Markets, to discover which new Broadway tours we want to try to bring to the Pioneer Center in upcoming seasons. As the complex touring routes and schedules are being formulated, Broadway producers are tasked with figuring out how Reno might fit into their overall puzzles. On the road, a production closes on a Sunday night in one city, packs up and travels by truck through Monday, and opens in the next city on Tuesday. With only one day to travel between cities, routing a tour that hits every requested theater is quite complicated!

 

The 25/26 season of Broadway Comes to Reno is a direct result of the Broadway League conference my team and I attended in May 2024. My hope is to always offer a mix of contemporary and classic, familiar titles and new stories, comedy and drama, and of course exceptional entertainment across the board. Our patrons have expressed the desire to see the biggest new Broadway shows on the market, and I am so excited about what we have achieved for the upcoming season. 

 

We will begin in October with & JULIET.  After premiering in London’s West End, & JULIET took Broadway by storm, playing to sold out houses. Inspired by the classic Shakespeare play we all remember reading in high school, this new musical ponders Juliet’s life journey had she not reacted to Romeo’s death as Shakespeare prescribed. The familiar music is all from the catalogue of pop songwriter Max Martin, including his Grammy-winning hits made famous by Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Ariana Grande, and many others. This is a Top 40 jukebox musical like you’ve never seen before – and you’ll have a rockin’ great time.

 

In December, the Pioneer Center will be one of the first theaters to present STEREOPHONIC, the 2024 Tony winner for “Best Play.” It also holds the record for the most Tonys awarded to any play in history. This story is set in a 1976 recording studio and follows a band on the brink of superstardom as they create a new rock album. The drama happens in the scenes, but you’ll be amazed every time the talented cast enters “the booth” to lay down their vocal and instrumental tracks, mixed live right in front of you. While STEREOPHONIC isn’t a musical, this “play with music” has one of the best original scores I’ve ever heard. There is no other Broadway play quite like it.

Author Nicholas Sparks found a best-selling hit and subsequent film adaptation with his debut novel THE NOTEBOOK. In 2024, this story opened on Broadway as a new musical. We follow a couple’s love story through highs and lows as they navigate the heartbreak of dementia. The couple is portrayed by three sets of actors at various ages across their lives. This emotional journey is set to an original score by acclaimed singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson. Bring the Kleenex – THE NOTEBOOK is both cathartic and beautiful. Reno is also one of the first theaters to present this new tour in March 2026.

 

If you like silly humor, raucous dancing, country music, and a big traditional Broadway musical comedy, our next show in May 2026 is definitely for you. SHUCKED, a 2023 Tony winner, tells the story of a young woman, Maizy, who is navigating complicated relationships in her small rural farming town. As she learns about life and love, you’ll be rolling in the aisles with laughter.  Directed by the very funny Jack O’Brien (Hairspray) with music by Grammy-winning songwriting team Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally (Kacey Musgroves’ “Follow Your Arrow”), SHUCKED truly is the “corn-iest” musical on tour!

 

Our summer heats up in June and July when we present HELL’S KITCHEN. R&B Grammy-winning superstar Alicia Keys provides the music for this 1990s-inspired show. Set in the Manhattan neighborhood known as Hell’s Kitchen, we meet teenage “Ali” as she comes of age in the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, discovers the music in her heart, and navigates a complicated relationship with her hard-working, single mother. The game-changing choreography from Camille A. Brown is breathtaking. The soaring vocals feature familiar hits and brand-new music from Keys. Also a 2024 Tony winner, HELL’S KITCHEN is a new Broadway classic making its national debut – and we get to be some of the first to experience it!

 

Speaking of classics, we end the season in July with a new production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. The beloved work by Rodgers and Hammerstein takes us back to Austria at the on-set of World War II, where a young Maria becomes the governess to the von Trapp Family. The soaring score features timeless songs (“Do-Re-Mi” and “Edelweiss”) that remain famous today. I will never grow tired of being reminded why this musical was groundbreaking in its time and remains just as poignant and beautiful today. THE SOUND OF MUSIC hasn’t had a Broadway tour in several years, and we are excited to see this musical back on the Pioneer Center stage.

 

New subscription packages for the 25/26 Broadway Comes to Reno season go on sale in June.  For more information on all of these productions, plus the other exciting shows coming to the Pioneer Center this summer, visit our official website www.pioneercenter.com. We look forward to welcoming you back to the theater soon!

Dennyse Sewell is the CEO of the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts in Reno, Nevada

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